Family Bible Studies

Notes by Deborah Disher

Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Haggai
8/22/09

Habakkuk

Habakkuk
1:1-17
The
question of how long will it be until the ultimate restoration of Israel comes up frequently in the Bible (verse 2, Isaiah
6:11-13, Daniel 12:6-13, Zechariah 1:12-17, etc.). A period of seventy years had been specified by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 25:11-12, 29:10, Dan. 9:1-2, II Chron. 36:21-22). Some who lived during the Persian empire, after the Jews had been allowed to return to Jerusalem, knew of Jeremiah's prophecy and
expected a major restoration of the nation at that time. But the book of Daniel
clarified the time frame: the “seventy weeks prophecy” of Daniel
9 indicated that the seventy literal years spoken of by Jeremiah (during which the kingdom of
Babylon ruled the world) represented a much
greater span of time. Four world-ruling empires would exist between
the time of Jeremiah and the time of Israel's ultimate restoration at the second coming of Christ. It would not be until after the
the fourth world-ruling empire that Israel would be restored and
God’s government would rule earth (Daniel chapters 2, 7). The
return of the Jews to Jerusalem as a result of Cyrus' decree (Ezra 1:1-4, seventy years after their exile to
Babylon) was simply a model of the ultimate restoration of Israel—the whole scenario was a foreshadow of something yet
to happen!

Verses 5-6 The four world ruling empires, or “beast powers,” are a tool in God's hand—His spanking stick—His means of
punishing the world's nations and humbling them. He first sends them
upon Israel, then upon the rest of the world. See Isaiah 10:5-7, 15,
20-26; 36:1; 39:1-8, Jeremiah 50:23, 51:20-23. You can apply anything about Assyria to Babylon
and the other "beast powers"—the prophecies regarding Assyria were transferred to Babylon because God
overthrew Assyria to save Judah when King Hezekiah led his nation
into national repentance (II Chron. 29-32). God was saying in effect that Assyria was
overthrown, but the punishment is still coming.
So
Assyrian prophecy becomes Babylonian prophecy, which in turn (as
Daniel 2 shows) continues through the histories of Persia, Greece and right on down into the Roman Empire and its resurrections—that is, to our time today! It’s “the beast that was, is not,
and will be again” (Revelation 17:8, 10). These prophecies come
right down to the second coming of Jesus Christ! See Jeremiah
50:20-34. When Cyrus overthrew Babylon and set up the Persian
Empire in its place, he typified what will happen when Jesus returns to wipe out the entire "beast system" at the
end-time (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1, Daniel 2:44, Revelation 18).

A
side note: why does God allow His nation to endure so much suffering?
Look at the Holocaust and ask, why did God allow the Jews to suffer that much? One
thing to remember is that God wants to keep the Israelites humble in this
age. They still, to this day, haven’t yet learned to obey God fully (Leviticus 26:40-45, Isaiah 64-65, Ezekiel 2-3, Hosea 1:9, Lam. 5:19-22, Romans 9:25-33, 11:25-32).
Undoubtedly, if any of the national Israelites and Jews would wholeheartedly turn to
God, He would deliver them (Psalms 81 and 91 are a guarantee of this!).

The
principle is: first God uses a "beast power" (Daniel 7) as a "rod of correction" to
punish Israel, then when Israel is humbled sufficiently, "Babylon" will
be punished and destroyed (Jeremiah 25:12, 51:60-64, Revelation 18:21-24). That is the lesson that comes right down
to the end-time. It’s how God works.

Now
back to Habakkuk. The prophet wanted to know how long it would be until the real
thing—how long until Babylon is really wiped out? God’s reply is in
chapter 2.

Habakkuk
2:1-4, 14, 20
God's
end-time prophecies will come when they come—until then, we have to
trust that God will do what He says. We have to have faith, even if
Bible prophecy isn't fulfilled in our lifetime. It will come! Wait
for it—and be ready for it. You can’t know if perhaps it will
come in your time! If it doesn’t come in your life, don’t worry
about it. See Hebrews 10:36-39.

That’s
the whole message of Habakkuk: always be ready for the second coming of Christ, the Messiah, and
the full restoration of Israel to glory, whether or not it
comes in your lifetime. It will happen. See Luke 12:35-40, 21:34-36, Mark 13:32-37. Zephaniah

Zephaniah,
describing the Day of the Lord, is a response to Habakkuk. A major
time of trouble is coming (remember that Habakkuk 2:2-3 says it is
certainly
coming). Zephaniah 2:2-3 says we should be seeking God and doing His will before the time comes, in order to gain God's protection. There is a real value in knowing God’s
plan and obeying Him.

This
is just a brief skimming glance at the book's main points. Chapter
3:8-20 is a brief summary of what will happen at the end of this age: first punishment,
then restoration, after the human beings who will become the first generation of restored Israel in the world tomorrow have been greatly humbled.

Haggai

Haggai
1:1-15
Moses
and Aaron are like Joshua and Zerubbabel, in that each set of two men
involves a civil leader and a religious leader at a time when God is
delivering national Israel from bondage and bringing them to the Promised Land (Canaan). They
both symbolize the two witnesses (Revelation 11) who will be full of
the spirit and power of Moses and Elijah).

In
Haggai’s time, the Israelites didn’t want to build the temple at first.
This made God upset. Haggai came to deliver a message from God: “Get on with it.”

Haggai
2:1-9
In
verse 5, God compared this Persian era to the time of Moses and
Aaron. That first exodus was a type of the much greater second exodus
to come at the return of Christ—the time for which the book of
Haggai is really written. See Isaiah 11:16, Jeremiah 16:14-15, 23:7-8.

Verse
9 can be looked at two ways. One is that Jesus’ entering the temple
(Matthew 21) was God glorifying the physical temple that was built in
the Persian time. But in its fullest sense, it means Jesus is
returning again to the temple which He is building—the Church of God! (That’s what the fact of the Jews being restored
to build the second temple really signified—Jesus building the Church of
God, in the “troubled times” (Daniel 9:25) when there is no nation on earth in
which God’s laws are being observed, thus inviting persecution from the ruling "beast powers." We’ll get back to that shortly.)

Haggai
2:18-23
God
promises a blessing for building the temple. It is similar to the
blessing for tithing (Malachi 3). Laying the foundation of the temple
was crucially important to its structural stability. In our time,
Jesus is the foundation for the Church—a rock solid one.

Consider
how much God wanted that physical temple to be built. God cares much more
that the Church, the bride of Christ, will be built.

Look
at verses 21-22. This is the answer God gives to the question “how
long?” The answer is, “wait for it, it will come.” This is just
what Habakkuk said.

In
verse 23, this man Zerubbabel has a chief role to play. The literal
Zerubbabel was important. (He was even part of the genealogy of
Christ.) Some verses in Zechariah make it sound like Zerubbabel was
to restore the throne of David to Jerusalem immediately. But let’s get the whole
meaning—there's more to it.

If
you look at Zechariah 4:9 and link it up to 1 Peter 2:6-8, you
realize that Zerubbabel is a symbol of Christ. Jesus is building His
temple, the Church: Ephesians 2:20-22 and 1 Corinthians. 3:10-23. See
also Hebrews 3:6 and 12:23, and recall that Hebrews 11 is a list of
all these “living stones” that Jesus has already finished (the “spirits
of just men made perfect”). Like the original temple, the stones of
this living temple are finished before they are ever assembled
together. Thus with the Church, we all individually are being perfected in
our own lifetimes—we'll be assembled together at the first
resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, 2 Thessalonians 2:1, Revelation 20:4-6).

At
this point, look at Ezra 1:1. Notice that there is a "spirit in man" which God can influence. Mr. Armstrong loved this verse because it
proves that point so neatly. God was determined to have the temple
built in the Persian times because that would symbolize the Church.
It funnels the Old Testament story and history right into the New
Testament. The Old Testament ends with the decree to go forth and
build the temple (2 Chronicles 36:22-23 are the final words of the
Old Testament in its original, inspired order). Ending the Old
Testament this way is not coincidence! God “building the temple”
is what the New Testament is about—the great commission of Christ's
apostles is the New Testament version of God's command to build the
temple!

Daniel
9:1-2, 20-27, Ezra 4:4-5
In
Ezra’s time, troubles abounded (Ezra 4 is an example of the
troubles facing the Jews of that era). This fulfills Daniel 9:25,
which says that the physical temple was to be built amidst
persecution. As mentioned earlier, this mirrors the fact that “no
smooth sailing is prophesied for the Church of God” (as Mr.
Armstrong said). The church is being built now, and the troubles that we go through today strengthen us (Daniel 11:32-35, 12:10). It’s important to note
from Haggai 1 that although most people view the troubles as a sign
God is not with them, the truth is exactly the opposite. God expects
things to come about in spite of troubles. We know there is to be
opposition! Don’t back down because of it—be strong because of
it.

So
we just read this seventy weeks prophecy in Daniel 9, and we know
that 69 weeks after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, the Messiah
would come. In Ezra 4:21 there is a statement that can be summed up
as “anyone who wants to reckon to the Messiah will have to wait
until I [Artaxerxes, king of Persia] make a new decree.” (Dr. Hoeh made that point.)

In
Ezra 7:13, we find the decree (dating back to 457 B.C.) from which
we can reckon to the beginning of Jesus' ministry at His first coming.

We’ll
end on this, because this is where Old Testament history leaves off.
We're left looking forward to the Messiah coming. We're also left
with a sense of the immense importance of a temple being built, one to which Christ can return (Malachi 3:1). It’s all symbolic of the New Testament.
The Old Testament temple itself is called “a copy and shadow of
heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5). God will finish the Church in time
for the second coming, so Jesus has a bride ready for Him upon His
return.

In
conclusion: look forward, eagerly, to this second coming and the
wonderful world tomorrow—it’s coming soon!